Together
by xxintothedark
Summary: Piper, Phoebe and Paige haven't been as close since they had children, but will a terrible event bring them all back together? Set in the future.
1. Chapter 1

TITLE – Together (working title)

RATING – T (for possible cursing and violence later on in the story)

DISCLAIMER – Obviously, I don't own Charmed. I don't own anything but the original characters.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 1 – The story takes place after season 8, way after season 8. All three of the Charmed Ones had three children. Piper's are Wyatt, Chris and Melinda. Phoebe's are Prudence, Parker and Persephone. Paige's are Henry Jr., Isabel and Julianna.

**CHAPTER ONE:**

"I don't want to go, mommy," seven-year-old Persephone Halliwell complained.

"Yeah, mom. Can we please not go?" Sephy's older sister Parker added.

"Girls, we have to go." Phoebe Halliwell said sternly as she frantically searched through her drawers for something decent to wear. "Auntie Piper needs all of the love and support she can get."

"You guys should be more upset," the eldest sister, thirteen-year-old Prudence, said to her two younger sisters. She turned to her mom and asked, "Do they even know what happened?"

"I told them, but I don't think they really understand how sad it is," Phoebe explained.

"That's like, impossible. What's not to get?" Prudence questioned. Phoebe didn't answer.

It was actually good that the children didn't fully understand what happened. Phoebe didn't need two children crying through the whole car ride to the manor. The truth was that having children really did change everything. When Piper had her first two children, Wyatt and Chris, the three Charmed Ones were all still living in the same house. But then, after a while, they all had children and drifted apart. After all, you couldn't have three rather large families living in the same old manor, now could you?

The fact that Piper, Phoebe and Paige had drifted so far apart was actually rather perplexing. They had been so close before, and now they only saw each other on holidays and occasionally just for surprise visits. Phoebe made an effort to go see Piper more often than she did Paige. Not because she two older sisters had a dramatic falling out with the youngest one, no. But mostly just because Paige didn't seem interested in continuing the Charmed legacy and visiting her sisters. She always did want her independence.

She, Henry and their children moved to a town about an hour away from the manor, where Piper, Leo and their children live. Phoebe, however, moved with Coop and their three wonderful daughters to a town about fifteen minutes away from the manor. That showed that they all still loved each other, they just didn't want to be as joined at the hip as they used to be. They were still good people. They didn't completely abandon one another. After all, how could they abandon Piper after that happened to her?

"Honey, we have to go," Phoebe's husband Coop shouted from downstairs.

"I know!" Phoebe shouted, finally throwing on something and pointing towards the door. "Out! Out! Come on, let's go!"

She sighed. This was going to be a long day.

"Shouldn't we be going now?" Henry asked his lovely wife, Paige.

"Yeah, probably."

"Paige, what's wrong? You've been acting weird."

"No kidding. I just, I –"

"Don't know what to say to them? They're your sisters!"

"That's not what I was going to say, Henry."

"Then what were you going to say?"

"It's nothing. I just don't know if I can handle this. I've kind of tried to escape the whole Charmed legacy thing, and now we're going back there and it's definitely going to be brought back up, and then we'll talk about teaching our children magic, and I just don't want them to go through what we went through," Paige rambled.

"But I thought you used to love being a witch!" Henry exclaimed. This whole thing was getting confusing.

"_Used to_ being the operative words. Then we had the kids, and then I looked back on everything and realized that these kids are not ready for all of the stuff we went through."

"Wait a minute. They're probably not even going to talk about the whole witch thing. We're probably just going to sit there, comfort Piper and Leo and make small talk. It's not going to be that hard," Henry explained.

"True. I also just don't know what to say to her. What happened was so horrible, I just, I can't even imagine," Paige said, hanging her head.

"I know, let's just talk about it when we get there. There's no need to get upset. We have to spend an hour in the car with three young kids, the last thing they need is their mother falling apart."

"Okay," Paige said, giving Henry a quick kiss before calling up to the children. "Kids! Let's go!"

They came hurrying down the stairs with all of their toys and ran out to the car. Paige and Henry followed.

-----------------------------

"Piper? Are you in there?" Leo said, knocking on the bathroom door. There was more than a hint of sadness in his usually soothing voice, but that was to be expected.

No answer.

"Piper?"

Again. No answer.

"Honey, please come out of there," he continued.

No answer.

He waited for a few moments, and then felt the door being unlocked. Piper wasn't coming out, but at least now she let Leo in. He opened the door gently, walking in and seeing Piper standing in front of the mirror. She was just standing there with a blank stare in her eyes.

"Piper?"

"What?"

At least she was talking.

"Come on, we have to get downstairs. They're going to be here soon," Leo said, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Does it really matter?" she said, running her fingers through her hair.

"Just come downstairs," Leo said, attempting to give Piper a hug.

Piper just turned to him, looking like she was about to slap him away. "Don't you even care?"

"How can you even say that?" Leo asked, starting to get outraged. He knew he shouldn't be mad at Piper at a time like this, but it was obvious that both of them had no idea how to act. There were just so many emotions bottled up inside both of them. They didn't know what to do.

"I'm…sorry, Leo. You didn't deserve that," Piper said, apologizing. Piper wasn't one to cry easily, but Leo could see the sadness in her eyes. He didn't know what else to do but hug her. So he did. And she didn't refuse at all.

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

"Come on, let's go," Leo said, putting his arms around Piper and guiding her towards the bathroom door and down the stairs. They both tried to get themselves together so that they act as decent hosts. They also needed to put on a happy face for the sake of the children. They knew what happened, of course, but they didn't need to know the details. And neither Piper nor Leo felt like talking about it.


	2. Chapter 2

"No way! Did that seriously happen?" Prudence asked her cousin Melinda. They were only one year apart, and they were pretty much the best of friends.

"Yeah! Would I lie about something like that?" Melinda answered.

Phoebe couldn't help but smile. Teenagers. Prudence had obviously realized that the adults could hear everything that they were saying, so she grabbed Melinda by the hand and went into a different room.

Piper couldn't help but smile a bit as well. She was doing her best to put on a happy face. Besides, she was tired of crying. Although, whenever she thought that, she felt like a horrible person. How could you be tired of mourning over a death? The one thing Piper was grateful for, though, was that at least Wyatt, Chris and Melinda had friends to help them get through this. Wyatt was pretty popular; at least, that's how Piper saw it. Many people liked him, so many people were there for him when this happened, not just his family. Chris, well, Chris was a long story, to say the least. He had friends. He just didn't have the best personality. So he wasn't as well liked. And Melinda had so much charisma that she could never be upset for too long without cracking a smile. So she was fine, though sad.

All of them were upset, but Piper took it the worst, of course. But that was to be expected.

Piper looked at her two sisters, not really knowing what to say. "So…" she started, staring at Phoebe and Paige.

"What's up?" Paige asked, then regretting it. Hopefully they could avoid the whole topic of, well, Piper's poor baby dying, and have fun like they used to. '_Not even in your dreams, Paige',_ she thought to herself. She sighed and looked toward Phoebe, gesturing for her to answer the question before Piper had a chance to.

"Nothing much," Phoebe answered. "I've just been taking care of the kids and working a lot. Nothing special," she said, obviously not having much to say either. There was an awkward silence. Every time they had these conversations, things were awkward.

"Remember what it was like before?" Paige questioned, a look in her eyes indicating that she wasn't fully aware of what she was saying. She was too busy strolling down memory lane. And at that moment, the other two sisters started to as well.

Nobody had to say anything to understand what Paige meant. She meant before they all drifted apart. Phoebe and Paige had stopped coming to the manor for regular visits, because the Charmed Ones weren't needed, magically, as much as they usually were. They were actually somewhat retired, which was odd. They each adjusted to living with their new families; living with husbands, living with children, and not living with sisters. Although they still talked to one another, they didn't talk as often. Paige really wished they had kept in touch with each other more than they actually had. But maybe they could patch things up now.

"But things are different now," Piper said, leaving memory lane and entering reality.

"Yeah, but still, it would be nice to get back to the way it was," Phoebe added.

"I know, but we all have husbands now, and children. We can't go back to being the ass-kicking witches we once were," Piper said, her tone of voice showing that she was a bit aggravated.

Phoebe and Paige didn't notice, though, and kept prodding Piper. "But we could call each other more. And let the kids see each other more. We don't have to be like all of those families who just see each other on the holidays."

Piper just smiled a bit and nodded. Little did her two little sisters know that she was about to crack.

"It seems like Melinda and Prudence are really good friends, and I know that Sephy and Parker wouldn't mind coming over here more to hang out with their little cousins," Phoebe said.

"Yeah, and Henry Jr. likes hanging out with Chris and Wyatt, even though they are both way older. He doesn't like hanging out with the girls very much. He gets enough of that at home. And Isabel and Julianna really like having older girls around. Besides, they need to make friends. I don't want them becoming those types of twins that only talk to each other," Paige said.

Piper just sat there, her blank stare coming back.

Phoebe realized what was happening and went over to sit next to Piper on the couch. "Piper?" she asked, getting no answer.

Paige sat across from them, a confused expression on her face. "What is it?" she asked.

"What the hell do you think it is, Paige?" Piper said, completely snapping. She couldn't deal with all the small talk anymore. They were going to have to face the issue.

"Piper, just calm down," Phoebe said, pulling her a little bit closer.

"Just get the hell off me, okay?" Piper said, literally pushing Phoebe away.

"Piper!"

Apparently the guys had heard Piper get angry all the way from the other room, because Leo came running in with a worried look on his face. "Is she okay?" he asked, walking over towards the couch and sitting on the other side of Piper.

"Of course I'm not okay!" Piper said, blowing her cool yet again. This time, she pushed both Leo and Phoebe away, standing up. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and turned back toward her husband and her sister. "My baby. My beautiful baby girl. She's…dead!" Piper said, sobbing uncontrollably. At that moment, she stopped being angry and started mourning.

She just sat there, in the comfort of her two sisters, lying in her husband's arms, for what seemed like hours. They all shed tears, and all comforted one another. Paige finally broke the silence, hoping not to say anything stupid again.

"Piper?" she asked.

"What?" Piper whined.

"We're going to help you," she said, pulling her sister out of Leo's arms and into her own.

"Yeah," Phoebe said, laying a hand on Piper's head.

"Good," Piper sighed. "I'm going to need it. We all are."


End file.
